Babiš opposes return of Russian hockey players to tournaments

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has said Czechia does not support the return of Russian hockey players to international tournaments. He criticised the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which last week lifted, with immediate effect, the ban on Russian male and female hockey players taking part in international competitions.

“I don’t think it’s good. Of course I agree that politics should not interfere with sport, but this decision brings politics into it, so it’s wrong, and in the end it will certainly not be about sport,” the prime minister said of Friday’s verdict.

Babiš was responding to a question about how the government and the state would act if Russian juniors wanted to compete at the women’s Under-18 World Championship, which takes place in January in Czechia, in the arena in Ostrava-Poruba. According to the prime minister, if it was once decided that Russian hockey players do not belong there, that should stay in place until the end of the war, and he is sure the whole government shares the same view.

“It makes no sense to bring them back now, as if we were saying that the war and the killing of people in Ukraine is normal. It is not normal, and that is why we reject such a proposal,” he added.

Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar (ANO) recalled in this context that the ban on issuing short-term visas to Russians remains in force in Czechia.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz